 Substitutions in baseball are fairly straightforward but depending on what situation the game is in at the time of the sub, it might be called something different. So really this video is just explaining how five different terms all essentially mean the same thing. Baseball subs are a one-way street so once a player is removed he cannot re-enter the game just like in football but not like in football. A player can be subbed in or out of a game at any point and while there are some exceptions for pitchers we'll come back to that a little bit later. So before every game the manager of your team will meet at home plate with the umpires and he will give both the umpire and the other team's manager a copy of his lineup for that day's game. This will include their starting lineup of guys who are going to play and their substitutions who are going to sit on the bench and eat sunflower seeds but will also be eligible to be subbed into the game at any point. A starting lineup will be either nine or ten players depending on whether or not there is a dh in the game and the total number of guys on the team at least in major league baseball will be 26. So in the NL that's 17 guys who could sub in although in practice some of the players are pitchers who won't play in that game unless it goes like 17 innings or something crazy meaning that realistically a team will probably have like five or six position subs and six or seven potential pitcher subs. There are two aspects of a starting lineup. First is the position that they are in in the batting order for a second third all the way down to ninth and once you are in that spot in the order you cannot move from that slot the order stays the same. The other aspect is the defensive position that you are playing. Any player in the lineup can be switched to any other position at any point during the game as long as the team has one player in each position at all times. All right so to the issue at hand here as in physics where there are four states of matter in baseball players there are also four states hitting fielding running and pitching substitutions could happen regardless of which state you're in they're just called different things. So if it's Baker's turn in the lineup to bat but he just I don't know came down with a case of leprosy then the manager will go to the umpire and say we are going to pinch hit Taylor for Baker meaning that Baker is out of the game and Taylor is now hitting in his spot in the batting order because he hasn't played on defense yet though he's still just considered a pinch hitter. Inevitably though that half ending will end and this team will have to take their defensive positions in the field and Taylor will have to be assigned to one of them. Now 98 percent of the time Taylor will just take up Baker's spot at second base although sometimes you'll see Taylor go out to say shortstop and the shortstop will move over to second base. Again the players who are already in the game could trade positions all they want but it generally doesn't happen all that often. Scenario two Baker is in the field playing second base when he breaks his angle. At this point obviously we'll need a substitution for him but as he is in the defensive state of baseball player bringing in Taylor to take his spot at second base is referred to as a defensive substitution. In effect though it basically has the same outcome as in the first situation Taylor plays in Baker's position and he would hit in his spot in the batting order. Defense of substitutions are most often made at the beginning of the half ending but obviously with entries they could happen at any point. The third state of substitution is the pinch runner who would sub into the game for someone who was already on base. This will often happen late in a close game when a team puts in a fast runner for a slower runner. The same way that a pinch hitter takes over that player's spot in the lineup so too would a pinch runner and he would have to then declare his defensive position when his team returns to the field. If the sub say happens in the last half ending of a game and the pinch runner comes around and scores the winning run then he would never really have to declare a defensive position as he never played the field which I suppose is technically why pinch runners and hitters even exist as a term rather than just calling Taylor the new second baseman even if he's entering the game to run the bases first. The rules also clarified that a player who is already in the lineup cannot pinch run for another player. However in some younger leagues there is a position called a courtesy runner which is kind of like a pinch runner but once they are done running the bases then the original player remains in the game on defense. This isn't a thing at higher levels of play though so check your local listings. Finally we come to pitchers who have a few more roles with regards to substitutions. Because pitchers are such an important aspect of the game the manager of the pitching coach is allowed to walk out to the mound and talk to the pitcher during the game. This is called a mound visit. When he gets out there they're typically going to discuss how the pitcher feels, what pitches he should throw to the next hitter and where they're going to eat after the game. On the other hand if it's a softball game they'll also probably discuss how the pitcher feels, what pitches she should throw to the next hitter and probably try to come up with another one of those annoying clapping cheers. Coaches can make one mound visit an inning but if you go back out a second time then the pitcher must be taken out of the game and replaced with another one. Once a pitcher is brought into the game he must pitch to at least three batters before he can be removed unless he is injured or he throws to say one batter who makes the third out of an inning then his team can send out a new pitcher to start the next half inning. This is a rule that was only added within the last few years in the major leagues because teams were bringing in a pitcher to throw to just one hitter and then changing to a new one for one or two more batters then changing him and it just began to take so long that it was kind of ridiculous because as we all know only people who are attracted to extreme sports with breakneck speeds watch baseball and they wanted the game to go a little quicker. Now I had mentioned that players can switch positions at any time and this also includes the pitcher so if you want to switch say your right fielder in the pitcher for a batter or two you can it doesn't happen very often but just know that pitchers are limited to one defensive position switch per inning. Finally we'll go over a scenario which seems to confuse a lot of people but really probably shouldn't which is called a double switch. Really all a double switch means is that multiple substitutions are happening at once which really isn't all that difficult to understand. When people say double switch though they are probably referring to a specific scenario that happens late in a game and only in nationally games where the pitcher has to hit. So we have our lineup here we've just concluded the bottom of the sixth and Frank on our team has made the last out. We are now going to take the field to start the seventh inning. Our pitcher Irwin though after a couple batters has gotten tired so we are going to take him out of the game but if we bring in our backup pitcher Walter and just have him replace Irwin in the ninth spot in the order that means that he would have to hit third the next inning and like most pitchers Walter isn't a very good hitter so we have two options either we pitch Walter for just this half inning and then we bring in a pinch hitter for him which means we'll also have to waste a pitch hitter. So what we're going to do is bring Walter into pitch but he's going to replace Frank in the batting order while our new right fielder James will hit in the ninth position in the lineup which we prefer because he is a better hitter so it's fine if he hits in the next half inning. So there you have it that's substitutions in baseball players can be subbed in at any point in the game if it's while they are hitting then the new player is a pinch hitter if they are in the field it is a defensive substitution if he is running the bases then he is a pinch runner a player must stay in his spot in the batting order but can move defensive positions to wherever he wants to pitchers can be relieved at any point but the new one must complete three at bats before he can be taken out and finally a double switch replaces two players while switching their positions with regards to their respective spots in the lineup now if you'll excuse me I need to go check on Baker's ankle